Slice of Life: Laurel Alvarez

HARLINGEN — One of the goals of an artist is to have his or her own style. That’s when it’s almost as if another person can just look at a piece and know that artist created it.

Local artist Laurel Alvarez is still seeking that goal.

“Artists really wonder and struggle with that,” she said about creating a style, while sitting among hundreds of works at the Harlingen Art Forum on Jackson Street last week.

Alvarez, who started painting in 2005 after she retired as a parole officer in the Great Northwest, is closer to that goal than she was before.

She said she has a following and a “fan base” who like and purchase her watercolor paintings. But, it’s been a process.

The Laguna Vista resident admits she was frustrated a year into getting back into painting.

“I thought I wasn’t doing very well,” she said. “One of my teachers said I needed to go back to the basics and just take drawings classes.”

So, for a year, she did. Then, she went back to watercolors, took classes and kept working at it.

Now, her works are on display at the Laguna Madre Art League in Port Isabel.

Starting tomorrow, Friday, through most of April, her watercolors that are both fantasy fun and realistic will be on display at the Harlingen Art Forum. A reception will be held tomorrow in conjunction with the downtown’s Art Night.

Harlingen and Laguna Vista are a long way from Laurel’s start.

The artist was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. During her young adult life, she was able to travel extensively throughout Mexico, Central and South Americas and Europe.

“I think it helped develop me and my tastes,” she said. “I was an exchange student in Latin America. Then spent a year in Mexico and Central America and had many trips to Europe. It gave me an appreciation for fine art as well as cultural art.”

In 2008, Laurel and husband Andres, who grew up in Port Isabel, purchased property in Laguna Vista planning to spend retirement in the area.

Initially, she didn’t have plans to go back to painting once retired. She really didn’t think about it. But, she had to find something she was passionate about.

Now, she paints just about every day.

“I love it here,” she said about the Valley. “I really like the art community. It is interesting how places have all these art communities and you only discover them once you are here.”

Those other artists inspire her as well.

“Art is varied and different,” she said. “I appreciate looking at local and community art and appreciate all of it. There is always something good about everybody’s art, even if it is not technically great, or the composition is off, there is always something to look and get out of it.”

Laurel has had plenty of her own success.

She won a first place for watercolor in the 45th International Art Show hosted by the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art.

“I don’t have big aspirations,” she said about her art or the upcoming show in Harlingen. “I am very happy in the art community down here. I just want to keep learning, take classes and share with other artists.”

And, if she fully develops her style, that is even better.

“I think I am pretty talented,” she said.

“My advice is to do it every day and put in the hours. I have come a long way. Been at it 10 years now going on 11. Someone told me it takes 10 years to begin to master a new skill. I think I am right on that.”